Monthly Archive for January, 2008

Blog #126

Published
by
Trevor
on January 30, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 5 Comments

Revolution 2008.

I love new years. Each time one rolls around, I have a definite start to be the man-guy I want/need/ought/etc to be. I had an interesting experience on new years eve. I realize I’m almost a month late writing it, but better late than never.

I was in my sister’s room contemplating my resolutions when I looked over my ten-year old sister’s desk and saw, written on a paper, “My New Year Revolutions.”

At first it was quite humorous. However, the more I thought about it, the more it sunk in. It struck a harmonic chord with me. Now, I no longer have resolutions, I have new year revolutions. To be the man I [placeholder] to be, I can’t amend or add resolutions to my life, I need to lead a revolution of self.

The only measure of what you believe is what you do. If you want to know what people believe, don’t read what they write, don’t ask them what they believe, just observe what they do.

Ashley Montagu 1905 - 1999 British-American Anthropologist

Music.

Many of you familiar with pandora.com might be aware that they have a blog. As I was reading it I came across a rather interesting post. The author of the blog post, while reading a book, came across an interesting statement in which the author of the book claimed that Johannes Brahms was “the great consoler.”

He continued in explanation stating that one piece in particular “comforted” him, and then he asked questions regarding the phenomenon. Read about it here.

Interested, I purchased the song off of iTunes and fell asleep to the melancholy melody. I woke up fresh and renewed. In fact, it felt great. I’m not writing off that this is probably placebo; but, who knows? Listen to a portion of the song here.


Organization.

No doubt, an organized person accomplishes loads more than those dealing with only the urgencies at hand. This is how our family stays organized:

  • We use googleCalendar. We can access it from anywhere. We have many “calendars” integrated on the one main calendar. As Caci’s schedule enlarges, I can see it and visa-versa. It also allows text message reminders days, hours or minutes before (it can email you too). One of the nice features is that you can invite people to an event and they can RSVP via email and it documents and reports it.
  • We use jott.com — Jott is an amazing “technology” that allows me to call a number and it will transcribe my voice into a text message, email, TO-DO, or calendar event and add it to googleCalendar or whatever is appropriate automatically and on the fly.
  • We also use Remember the Milk for our tasks. It is integrated with googleCalendar, Jott and our email accounts.

For those of you not wanting to set up such a “network,” check out iwantsandy.com who is your personal secretary. I am certain that iwantsandy.com will help you manage and accomplish much more efficiently.

Blog #126

Published
by
Trevor
on January 11, 2008
in Chapmans, Family, Jace, School, St. George, Suttners and Travel
. 7 Comments

It has been a century, at least, since we’ve updated (not that this update has not been on our mind — it has, for many days we’ve discussed it)! Why, then, the long wait? One word: busy.

This post will be cut into two parts. First, I’ll (Trevor) update with news and info. Then, second, Caci will update with the past month’s story.

News:

  1. Not many of you knew/know, but we traded the Jeep in for a Prius (hybrid vehicle). Caci will want to write about this.
  2. My employment switched from Orkin. I started a marketing company called “Epic Marketing Group.” We’ll be handling the summer sales in one office for a company called Service Pro in Tampa, Florida this first year. My good buddy Thor accepted an offer of partnership. More details will absolutely come shortly.
  3. Caci is taking a full semester of classes, while I am deferring one semester to guarantee success with Epic and to take care of Jace while Caci finishes up her degree.
  4. I was recently up in Seattle to recruit guys for this summer. The day before I drove up we were on I-15 returning from the holidays–as Caci was at the wheel, the van in front of us randomly had a door open and out dropped a box of auto parts. We hit it and it caused some crazy damage. We’ve had three estimates, all over $8k. Luckily, the guy’s company’s insurance is going to cover the damages.

iPhone Photos: (View these full size @ http://picasaweb.google.com/jtrevorchapman)





EPIC MARKETING GROUP

As per our last entry, its clear that my employment switched. The decision was tough. Any time you leave relative comfort to slash out a trail through the thick, parts of you cling to the rocks of “safety;” but, in the end, the trail less traveled by is the one that makes all the difference.Had I stuck with Orkin, I would have been haunted with the ever demeaning & deflating “what if.” That is something to be avoided.

Our goal this first year is 38 employees and 3,000+ accounts. At the end of the summer, I’ll report our financials. Until then, I must be wary of corporate espionage.

To collaborate with our sales representatives we’ve installed google apps on our company site. Its great.

I played around with a few logos, in the end, the Spartan won my preference. View the logos here.

Coming tomorrow, I’ve got our family’s method to efficiency being posted - check back then!

Part II

The holidays started out really really horrible but turned out to be awesome! We were planning on coming down the 21st, as soon as Trevor was done with his finals, so that we could get to St. George at the same time Lia and Justin’s family did. Jace, however, was the second sickest he has ever been in his life. He was puking everything he ate, had a fever of over 104, and he was so weak he couldn’t even move. I literally held him in my arms on the couch with both of us covered in puke, for three days. It was horrible. I was really afraid that we were going to have to take him to the emergency room because he was so dehydrated and had lost weight from lack of food and water. The 21st came and went, and then the 22nd, and then the 23rd and without signs of improvement from Jace. We decided that we would just take him down because it was so near Christmas and just pray for the best. Well, we got to St. George on the 23rd and Jace was still very sick. He was still puking up everything he ate, but at least he could walk (albeit very unsteadily) by himself. Dad and Trevor decided to give him a blessing and then BAM he was healed. No more throwing up, no more fever— he was completely better. It was amazing.

We spent Christmas with my family and got to stay in the Cox family’s GIANT house because our house was already packed. It was SOOOO wonderful because they have this GIGANTIC master suite with this AMAZING bed, a Jacuzzi tub, and the coolest shower with like 6 shower heads from all directions. It was the epitome of luxury!

Christmas was so much fun! Gabe had decorated the house all by himself and did a fantastic job. This was the first time we didn’t go to Pine Valley and cut down a Christmas tree— we bought one out of the Ben Hurst parking lot; my dad is getting really old.

It was so fun to see what everyone had given each other on Christmas day. The biggest event, however, was the whole boots fiasco. Those who were there know. Those who weren’t can check out the story on the Collings’ blog. It was quite the situation. I got Trevor “Rock Band” so we had the BEST time playing that with all of the family; Justin even got into it! We played it so much that we broke it and I need to send it in for replacement.

The next day we drove to Las Vegas to spend the rest of the holidays with the Chapman family. We had so much fun playing games, watching movies, eating at buffets, and celebrating New Years. It is always SO fun to go to the Chapman’s because they watch Jace the whole time and Trevor and I can just relax and go places alone. That is really awesome. We were going to stay with the Chapman’s until the 3rd and then go to Los Angeles for a little family vacation but a work emergency for Trevor meant a sudden departure from the Chapman’s on the 2nd and no little vacation. We got to Provo early the morning of the 3rd and then the next day Trevor took off to Seattle, Washington to get business under control. He was only supposed to be there for two days but he didn’t get home until 5 days later! I started school without him here and had to call babysitters to watch Jace while I was in class. Kinsi helped out a lot, too, so that was really wonderful.

Classes are going really well and I am so happy to be back in school. Jace is loving spending more time with Trevor and this looks like it is going to be one fantastic year!